


Protective

by Its_Raineing_Words



Series: Young Mafia [2]
Category: Mafia 2
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen, How They Met, One Shot, children!mafia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-17
Updated: 2014-04-17
Packaged: 2018-01-19 17:46:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,504
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1478500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Its_Raineing_Words/pseuds/Its_Raineing_Words
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vito gets beaten up and Joe gets angry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Protective

**Author's Note:**

> This is a re-post from my Tumblr so if you want to read it there this is the link: http://musically-literally.tumblr.com/post/51503068473/protective

Vito had managed to keep out of trouble in school for the most part but Charlie seemed to have something against him and was steadily getting more violent in his teasing, a punch here, a kick there; yesterday though he had threatened he was going to “Beat the crap outta you, you Italian fuck!”  
He definitely didn’t want Joe to get involved in it-those guys had enough against him already what with the fact he was Italian too. The only thing stopping them from doing the same to him was his reputation as a brawler. Vito just wanted to be big enough to stand up to them but all he could hope to do though was take his beating like a man and cover the bruises.

Without going into the affair in too much detail let’s just say there were stones involved-and a lot of chasing. Vito was a lot of things but brave was not one of them. Luckily though they could be covered by his clothes and though his Mama suspected something he just said he was tired and she believed him for the most part and sent him off to bed. When he woke up he was in pain, lots of pain. His torso felt like it has concaved in on itself-he felt like it was a wonder he could breathe. His arm wasn’t any better, school was going to be worse than usual. It was cold outside so he got away with gloves to cover the bruises that had coloured during the night. “Vito, you know the way to school by now, yes? I can’t take you-Francesca needs me to talk to her teacher.” They’d started to speak English in the house and because of that his English was making good progress although he missed speaking Italian with his mother sometimes.

“Of course Mama-I gotta go now or I’ll be late.” He grabbed his back and ran out of the door and took off down the stairs, adrenaline numbing the pain until he got outside. He put a hand against the wall to steady himself for fear of falling. “Sta bene?” a passer by asked “Sì…” but the man was already gone, he practically had to drag himself to school and even though he set out earlier than usual but he was still late.

 

When he walked into his classroom his teacher was none too pleased “Vittorio, do you have an explanation as to why you’re so late?”  
“Uh…no sir, I’m sorry.”  
“Fine, just because it was your first tardy I’ll let you off-be on time in future.”  
“Yes sir.” He hurried to his desk. As soon as he sat down Charlie started hissing in his ear, honestly he just wanted to run away.  
“How you feeling…a little sore”  
“Just shut up, Charlie, I don’t wanna hear it.” Vito tried to think of what Joe would say  
“That’s the longest sentence I’ve heard you say…” He barked a laugh

There have been a lot of times when Vito wanted to punch someone; the first time his father came home dunk for instance but he’d never want to hurt someone as much as in that moment. He wanted to grind the smug look off that fuckers face with the heel of his boot. He wanted to kill him for the embarrassment and shame he’d made him feel.  
“What seems to be the problem?” Mr Whitehall broke him out of his anger-trance and into the real world. The whole classroom was staring at them, Vito supposed it looked like one of those cowboy movies where the two guys stood-off at noon; both glaring at the other.  
“Nothing, Vito just said some things.” Charlie was a good actor Vito had to give him that, went the whole nine yard-his lip even wobbled. Smug bastard.  
“What things?” The teachers concerned face came into play  
“Stuff about…” an over-dramatic sniff “my mother…” Vito would have protested but he knew a useless fight when he saw one  
“Vittorio-go to the principal’s office, now.” It wasn’t just infuriating, it was embarrassing too, he looked over at Joe to see him with a dark expression on his face…so he’d figured out what had happened then. The trip to the principal’s office was miserable, a lot was said in there but the result was that Vito had to spend break inside writing ‘I will not insult my classmate’ over and over and hope that there would be enough of them that he wouldn’t have to stay after school. During class before that he hadn’t needed to pick up a pencil to write but the moment he grabbed it to start writing the lines pain shot through his hand, up through his arm and somehow made it all the way to his shoulder. He gritted his teeth, that was the side that faced the boys when they were kicking him but he was in for the duration-he’d have to get over it-it was just a few bruises.  
“Non essere un bambino, Vito” he muttered to himself angrily  
“Vito” He looked up to see Joe’s concerned face poking around the side of the door “are you ok?”  
“Yeah Joe, I’m fine.”  
“You didn’t sound fine just then.” He walked over and sat in the seat next to Vito  
“Just leave it Joe…it’s not your problem.”  
“Yes it is. Did that cocksucker Charlie say something to you?”  
Vito said nothing.  
“Don’t worry, next time he says something I’ll have your back.” He clapped Vito’s shoulder in a friendly gesture and Vito let out a whimper. He squeezed his eyes shut and hissed a few breathes through his clenched teeth.  
“I’ll fucking kill him.”  
“Joe, don’t, its fine.”  
“No it’s not Vito! I can’t let some fuck hurt my friends.”  
“Joe it’s not that bad. I can handle it myself.” Joe didn’t reply though, just grabbed his shirt (taking obvious take not to put pressure on his bruises) and hauled him off to the boy’s bathroom. Once in there he let go and motioned for him to take his shirt off.  
It was a wonder no one saw them. “Joe don’t I’m fine…” he trailed off at the look Joe was giving him-he sighed and lifted his shirt. Joe made an angry sound behind him which promted Vito to look down at his chest; purple and blue bruises coloured the skin of his torso and arms. There was a particularly painful one of his shoulder he had to twist around to see was yellowing at the edges. Overall he looked like he’d picked a fight with a truck and lost.  
“Tell me who did this to you.”  
“Is there any point in me not telling you?”  
“No.”  
“Charlie and a few of his friends, Donovan and Harry I think.”  
“Vito, I need you to do something for me-just stay here so you don’t get into trouble too, ok?” There was no point in arguing, Joe wasn’t the sort of guy you could argue with so he let it be and went back into the classroom to do his lines. When the next class started Joe wasn’t there, neither were Charlie, Donovan or Harry.  
“Sir, what happened to Charlie?” Someone asked  
“He’s in the principal’s office, no more questions. Just turn to page twenty-three and take notes.” No more was said on the subject and none of them came back from the principal’s office all day. Vito waited for Joe outside the gates and walked along-side him when he came out walked out a good ten minutes after everyone else had already left. Joe had a giant bruise on his cheek and a split lip.  
“You gonna ask me what happened?” Joe said annoyed after they’d been walking in silence next to each other long enough for it to get awkward. “What happened then, Joe?”

“Confronted the bastards in the playground and that cocksucker Charlie had the nerve to brag about beating the shit outta you so I punched him, his friends got involved so I took a few shots to the face as well,” he motioned to his face “you should see him though…way worse. They got off with nothing but that’s going on my record-got a beating too. Ma’s not gonna be happy when she hears this.”

“I’m sorry Joe, you really didn’t have to-”  
“Vito, you’re my friend, I look after my friends, don’t let anyone hurt ‘em. You’d do the same for me.” and yeah, Vito would, it was a comforting feeling someone having your back-making sure no one hurt you. “Seriously Vito, you’ve gotta learn to fight. You got the crap beat outta you and you can’t let that happen again. You’re so skinny too… we need to get you some muscle like me”  
“You’re all fat.”  
“Hey! This is muscle!”  
“Sure it is…whatever you say, Joe.” Vito grinned “Catch me if you can!” He yelled before sprinting down the road nearly knocking someone over. “Hey! Wait for me!” Joe yelled after him.


End file.
